Welcome to part 3 in Bruce Music‘s series on Music Theory. This time we’re looking at the Minor scale. It is sometimes called the Natural Minor Scale (due to there being a couple of altered versions that we’ll look at later) or sometimes the Relative Minor Scale, (due to its close connection with the Major scale.) More on this to come, but for now let’s look at how to build a minor scale.

Just as we used a certain formula of Tones and Semitones to build the Major Scale (In Part 2), there is another formula we can apply to build a Minor scale. It is:

T S T T S T T

ie, for an A minor scale – A——(T)——B——(S)——C—–(T)—–D—–(T)—–E—–(S)—–F——(T)——G——(T)——A

Thus, we end up with a 7 note scale, with all intervals numbered 1-7, as is marked using roman numerals.